going over the fiscal cliff could cost america jobs. >> we're only expanding 2% right now. it needs to be considerably higher to bring more people off unemployment. >> reporter: for the jobless, president obama is asking congress for millions more. and more on the president's plan which will pitch to governors today largely spares social security and medicare. >> tracie potts for us in washington, thank you. >>> now to the crisis in syria. new reports that the white house and its allies are weighing military options to secure syria's chemical and biological weapons. president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton both issued warnings to syria monday after intelligence picked up signs the assad regime might be making preparations of some kind with its large stockpile of chemical weapons. >> i want to make it absolutely clear to assad and those under his command the world is watching. the use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. and if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there will be consequences and you will be held accountable. >